As anyone who viewed The Enquirer’s Web site Tuesday night or read the newspaper this morning knows, Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Bortz received an advisory opinion from Ohio ethics officials last year indicating he shouldn’t participate in any decisions about the proposed streetcar project.

Duke Energy's approval and cooperation was considered to be essential in advancing the highly anticipated Cincinnati streetcar project, and Wednesday the company announced it isn't willing to cooperate.

In a letter to Mayor Mark Mallory dated Feb. 8, Ohio and Kentucky Duke Energy President Julie Janson stated that Duke changed its mind after a year and a half of negotiations and that it wouldn't cooperate with the city's requests that Duke move utility lines downtown to make way for the streetcar's tracks. According to Janson's letter, the lines must be moved a minimum of eight feet from the edge of the streetcar before any progress can be made in the plan's implementation. Duke estimates that the relocation and replacement of the infrastructure would cost somewhere around $18.7 million, but City Manager Milton Dohoney said that estimate hadn't been verified by anyone else.

In this week’s Porkopolis column, I wondered how Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls felt about “being continually used as a human shield” by City Councilman Chris Bortz on an issue of a potential conflict of interest.

In the heated debate over budget cuts at City Hall, several groups are alleging Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding is “two-faced” and told various individuals during his 2009 campaign that he would end his support for the proposed streetcar project.

Cincinnatians for Progress is hosting a fund-raiser and rally tonight for the planned Cincinnati streetcar system from 5:30 to 7:30 at Grammer's, 1140 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. The event kicks off what the group calls "our campaign in support of economic development, preserving transportation choices, good governance and progress in Cincinnati."

Suggested donation is $35, and donations are also being accepted at the group's web site. Further information is available from the fine folks at Cincinnati Streetcar, with lots of discussion about streetcars on their excellent blog.

The money will be used for planning and design work for the system. Its first phase would be a loop through downtown and Over-the-Rhine, with a later segment built to the uptown area near the University of Cincinnati and local hospitals.

Greater Cincinnati made the list of the Top 10 cities in the United States with the easiest and most affordable commutes.

In a ranking complied byKiplinger.com and released today, the Cincinnati-Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area ranked no. 7. To make the list, an area had to have a population of at least 1 million people and a low congestion cost, which the site defines asa measurement of wasted time and fuel calculated by the Texas Transportation Institute.

As additional information becomes known, an allegedly impartial poll about Cincinnati's streetcar project touted byThe Enquirerbecomes more suspect. A person who took the poll says the questions seemed like “propaganda,” while the pollster violated the accepted standards of the polling industry.